Where are the Amway critics?

Recently, David Steadson aka IBOFB made an appearance over at the QBlog Forum. Believe it or not, Mr. Steadson actually got me to thinking about things over a couple of days. Other than the usual spinning and PR tactics, one paragraph really grabbed me:

"Amway North America is currently growing substantially. Outside of the TEAM exodus in 2007/2008, Amway North America grew substantially in 2008 as well. There are 500-1000 new platinums every year and many new diamonds and above. Contrary to your claims, business is going well, and contrary to your claims, Amway has done a lot to address problems, as evidence by the fact there's virtually no new "critics".

First of all, where would one find this substantial growth? Has Amway released those statistics? Are there really a "substantial" number of new people in Amway?

As far as the 500 new platinums and above, that may very well be, but does this take into account overseas growth and transfer that over to North American businesses? You could have a guy in Canada who immigrated from India, and sponsors his friends back in India, but nobody else in Canada, yet still attains a platinum pin.

I guess what I'd like to know is if you can realistically expect to build a "substantial" business in North America with only North Americans in your group?

If someone were to say it's a common occurrence, I reject that. Not everybody has large families across the Atlantic where Amway hasn't had a chance to shoot itself in the foot yet.

So taking that into account, I really don't think the Amway business is going well.

I also don't think Amway has done anything to address the problems, although the heat does seem to be off a little now, compared to 2 years ago.

As far as there being no new critics, I would have to agree with Amway's staunchest defender. There really aren't, although that's hardly any of Amway's doing, and despite what his ego might think, it's not Mr. Steadson's doing either.

Wanna know what I think?

There's not many new critics because people aren't getting involved. They get prospected, they do a bit of research, and they simply don't do it!

C'mon, you can't tell me that recruiting of people in North America is up. If it was, Amway would be falling all over themselves (and so would David Steadson) telling everyone about it.

Pretty hard to have a bad experience in Amway when you don't get into Amway.

Make no mistake about it, the lack of new critics is because people now know more of the information the leaders (possibly Amway as well) didn't want them to know, and they choose not to get involved.

When you don't get involved, you don't spend more on products than you did before, and you don't spend thousands in useless travel to hear an egomaniac tell you his life story that nobody outside the room gives a shit about.

In short, you don't have a bad experience in Amway anymore because their reputation is so in the toilet that nobody gets involved to have a bad experience. Hence, no new critics.

No growth in North America either.

There aren't many new critics because people don't sign up. Pretty tough to have a bad experience when you're smart enough not to participate in the first place.

Thanks IBOFB. I hadn't thought of it that way before.

I've been travelling extensively the past month, so I haven't had the time to update. Got a new computer too, so I'm learning a new way of doing things.

Cheers!